Montana Senate backs bill to repeal unconstitutional anti-gay law

Source: Associated Press

Montana lawmakers considered a pair of familiar gay rights measures Tuesday, one that would strike an obsolete state law that criminalizes gay sex and another that would expand anti-discrimination protections.

The state Senate overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal that repeals an anti-gay law ruled unconstitutional in 1997 by the Montana Supreme Court. The state’s deviate sexual relations law still makes illegal “sexual contact or sexual intercourse between two persons of the same sex.”

... But the bill will likely head to the conservative House Judiciary Committee if it formally clears the Senate in a final vote scheduled for Wednesday. A similar measure cleared the Senate in 2011 only to die in that House committee.

Democrats, who have picked up a few seats in that chamber, hope this year will be different. Advocates also point out that since then, the Montana Republican Party has removed from its platform the position that it seeks to make homosexual acts illegal. The party remains opposed to gay marriage.